Book review: Armando Lara-Milan, Redistributing the Poor: Jails, Hospitals, and the Crisis of Law and Fiscal Austerity
| Author | Benjamin Fleury-Steiner |
| Published date | 01 February 2022 |
| Date | 01 February 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13624806211056771 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Some of the most compelling stories (see pp. 235–236) follow individuals who, upon
release from prison, are handed a list of halfway houses and treatment facilities with an
order to move into one of them within a day or two of release. The onus of “choosing”a
facility is put on the individual who likely finds that facilities no longer exist, do not have
room, do not accept people with their particular backgrounds or are located outside the
reach of public transportation. The idea of “choice”in these instances exposes the
false dichotomy between treatment and punishment. As part of “treatment”, the individ-
ual is taught to make so-called better choices. Yet in the absence of real alternatives, the
process of choosing leads back to institutions of punishment.
This sort of dilemma is built into the system. Looking back, Miller explains that George
W. Bush’s“Second Chance Act”passed at a time in which policymakers knew that people
with criminal records struggled to find jobs and housing. Yet this Act emphasized personal
transformation (and funded programs with that emphasis) rather than addressing the struc-
tural conditions that make it impossible for people to obtain decent jobs. Still today, so-called
reentry programs rarely lead to good jobs or a meaningful career ladder. Rather, they focus on
teaching people “how to cope with their position on the bottom of the social order”(p. 225).
Halfway Home isan extraordinarily deep and nuancedexploration of intersectionalityof
race and class. In future work I would like to read more of Miller’s thoughts about how
gender intersectswith both race and class. As much as racism drivesthe over-incarceration
of people of color, hegemonic notions of gender define citizenship and personhood. Thus,
Miller notes that the criminal legal trajectory for boys includes getting into fights, cutting
class, police and incarceration while girls tend to be a bit older when first arrested, most
have children and almost all have been sexually assaulted. I’dliketohearmoreabout
how these differences play out. Within the carceral landscape, gender segregation is
taken for granted, andgendered “pathways into crime”are assumed to be the norm. I espe-
cially wanted to learn more about how Blackmen experience racialized portrayals of sexu-
ally insatiable and predatory masculinity.This is not meant as criticism—no one book can
do it all. Rather, this is hope that Miller will continue to turn his compassionate and astute
eye on additional pieces of the carceral landscape.
Halfway Home is a book I will assign to undergraduates, and have already recom-
mended to friends and community activists. Indeed, if I were asked to suggest one
book as an introduction to race and incarceration, this is the book I would choose. It is
beautifully written, accessible and compellingly personal. Yet it is not simplistic: veterans
in the field will gain new insights from the ways in which Miller weaves together law and
policy, the history of racial constructions, neighborhood dynamics in Chicago and
Detroit, and the politics of punishment and control.
Armando Lara-Milan, Redistributing the Poor: Jails, Hospitals, and the Crisis of Law and Fiscal Austerity,
Oxford University Press: New York, 2021; 256 pp.: 9780197507902, $27.95 (pbk)
Reviewed by: Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, University of Delaware, USA
Although the research for this book occurred prior to the global pandemic, Armando
Lara-Milan’s fascinating Redistributing the Poor arrives at a most opportune time.
Book Reviews 175
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